Source:Brisbane signing, 20 September 1999 - report by Joel Gilmore
Brisbane signing 20 September 1999 - Report by Joel Gilmore Ok, it's almost midnight, and I've got to get up in about 6 hours, so I'll keep this really short. Skip the next two paragraphs if you just want the questions. Only one other person from the newsgroup was there, namely Willum, which I managed to recognise, and we got together with one of my other friends for a small dfs afterwards. Anyway... I did take a tape recorder, and taped the talk, though I didn't ask permission. And contrary to what I thought listening to it after we left (what you heard Willum) the tape is pretty good quality. He read the first bit of Book 8 (about the Ages come to pass and the wind etc) and that came out very well. Ok, now the really important bit: the questions!!! Ok, first and foremost we have an answer to the balefire-balefire paradox. If A bfs B, then C bfs A, B WILL come back alive again. I explored this quite thoroughly with him, getting him to repeat himself more than once. It is definite. It is over. The shimmering thing with Ishy in the EotW prologue was because of a True Power gateway! The vanishing thing that Lanfear does at the end of book 2 is in fact her just walking out the door. Nothing more. I asked about Ishy's bit in the book 8 prologue, but got to RAFOs so we won't know whether it is set before hand, or (the first question I asked) if all the 9 mentioned were all Forsaken. We found out his favourite authors. Yes, there is a cardgame on the way, similar to Magic: the Gathering. At least three more books...He's dissapointed about our failure to find who killed asmo...A couple of other stories...There was a drunk guy there who kept interrupting and shouting (almost abusing) RJ (Aggghhh!!!) I forgot to ask about Rahvin,Rand and the fish, but I'm seeing him again tomorrow :) so I'll ask him then. We stayed right till the end, and left with him, going down in the lift together and everything. I found him a really nice guy, and very friendly. Oh, and I re-asked the question about the shadow controlling one of the horn or the banner, and he said that the heros would have to follow the horn (I think. I don't have this on tape, so...But he didn't say anything about a rift, which was what I'd heard someone say he said before?) Well, that's it for now. I'm off to bed, ready to see him tomorrow. I'm going to try and get him to pronounce the names of the Forsaken (I got corrected on my Ishy pronounciation!) and record them on the tape. Maybe a few other character names or things as well. All right, good night all. I'll have a full transcript up as soon as I can. Cheers, Joel. -- Link to signing report: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan/msg/8b9e9028447101d6 ---- A few comments from the signing on the next day: Ok, I went to see RJ again yesterday, and I was able to ask a couple more things. Firstly, Robert Jordan says the next book should (yeah, right) be finished May 2000, and published 2 months after that!!! So not long to go! And, I got an answer to the Rahvin/balefire/TAR question - when someone is bfed, the constructs they make in TAR do not disappear, but instead fade away slowly over time. There are lots of wierd effects associated with TAR and bf, such as the way the world flickers after bf used. I asked him just generally about it, and then he jumped straight in, gave the answer, then used the Rand and the fish example. I also got him to pronounce the names of the Forsaken (well, some of them) onto tape for me. He only got a few, but get this. I said "Could you recite the names of some of teh Forsaken?" He said "Sure, Ishamael, Rahvin, Semirhage, who else? Moridin..." Now, it could just be he was listing evil people, or it could be that he was giving me a subtle clue. We can't prove it either way, but it's more food for thought :) Oh, and Ogier is pronounced OH-gee-ehr more or less, with the OH as in "so" and the gee not too much. I'm going to post the transcript as soon as I've done it (won't be till next week). I don't think it would be right to post any of his voice, although maybe just a couple of the Forsaken names would be ok? Any suggestions? (post=on web page :0) Hmmm, I think that's all. Oh, and I got a number of really cool posters. One side has the PoD cover (full spread), the other has all the book covers and teh WoT logo. Very cool. Cheers, Joel Oh, and one more thing: The Forsaken are reborn pretty much straight away when they die. "Not right on the heels, but close." That should make things interesting :) Joel. Link for these comments: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan/msg/70059f37eece008a Category:Conversations with Robert Jordan Category:Reports from Fans